Saturday, February 16, 2008

Having done more than its fair share to propagate the Harper government’s lies about tax leakage, as Jim Flaherty’s and Mark Carney’s fraudulent rationale to kill income trusts, the Globe and Mail is now doing its best at fulfilling item 2 of Goldman Sachs' wish list being executed by Goldman Sachs alumni Mark Carney, and that is to advise Canadians who are hungering for high yielding equity investments to "look south", and invest in the US market.

Perhaps they could follow this piece up with a piece on the $480 billion US Master Limited Partnership (MLP) market, since the MLP market is the exact parallel to the Canadian income trust market.

That would be quite the revelation for Globe’s readers, since our Minster of Finance, who doubles as the Minister of Fraud, told Canadians that the US had shut down their income trust equivalent market. Too bad no one in the press did a little deeper digging.

Which only goes to show. Don’t trust politicians. Don’t trust the Globe.

They are both too interested in "shaping the truth" rather than "reporting the truth".

Today’s article entitled “Want some dividend excitement? Look south” is the inevitable follow up story to these virulent gems of the past whose sole focus was to mislead Canadians about the false notion of tax leakage in order to kill income trusts:

Capitalism for slobs.By Eric Reguly. March 2005 Report on Business

Income trusts are turning Canadian CEOs and investors into coupon-clipping couch potatoesIncome trusts are the glazed doughnuts of the financial world, and the investors who gorge on them are becoming fat and happy. Soon, they will become lethargic, their arteries and brains clogged with trust lard. And what's bad for investors is also bad for corporate Canada.

"Someone should encase income trust lobbyists in concrete and fling them off a bridge into deep water. On second thought, forget it; even that wouldn't stop the misguided creatures. Houdini-like, they would somehow break free and call for Jim Flaherty's head the moment their lips broke the surface. They are unstoppable and insatiable.Still, the trusts lobbyists are lusting for blood, as if it's their god-given right to determine tax policy. They should be ignored."

Trust lobby had no hope against FlahertyBy Eric Reguly. February 1, 2007 Report on Business

If the expanding array of income trust lobby groups were to emboss their stationery, they might consider the image of Sisyphus, the symbol of hopeless labour. The lobbyists keep pushing the rock up to Jim Flaherty's door only to have it roll back upon them with great squishing sounds. Repeat process, repeatedly.There’s no arguing with the man (Flaherty), and the trust’s disjointed effort only made it easier for him to say no

Of all the venomous comments that the Globe has falsely advanced about income trusts, the worst one of all, wasn't even about income trusts. It was the admonishment that "they should be ignored".

I can't think of a more ignorant and intolerant piece of advice to be handed out in a newspaper, than to ignore the other side of an argument.

What's next? Book burning?

At the Globe and Mail, apparently ignorance is bliss. Both in terms of their readers and certainly amongst the news staff.

That's probably why their investment advice of today and their readership of tomorrow is headed the same direction: ”Look south.”

5 comments:

Dr Mike
said...

Isn`t this unreal--instead of being Canadian coupon clipping old farts , we are moving our old fartness & our money to the US where we can clip till our hearts content.

Mr Flaherty must have eaten some bad lawyer feed to believe that he was bringing us in-line withe US markets--did he not think to check that Canadian investors are not idiots--some of us may be old , but that does not make us stupid.

If the very fact that he said the TFP would bring us in-line with other jurisdictions is untrue , then it follows that the rest of the TFP justification was bogus as well.

See Jimmy , we are not as dumb as you had thought.

Mike.

PS--to JIm , thanks for spending the cupboard bare just to prevent the opposition parties from making election promises that would be realistic--what a sadistic thing to do---obviously , the citizens mean nothing to you---I guess you are only looking out for number one--that number one is Stephen Harper.

Why won‚t the Canadian media investigate the falsehoods and misrepresentations told by the Minister of Finance to a committee of Parliament? Was the Minister in contempt of Parliament?

Is Diane Francis the only accountable and transparent business writer that begs the question:

"Prove the case or drop the tax"

PS: Derek, Amanda, John and Bill,

"DO YOUR HOMEWORK, THAT IS LONG, LONG OVERDUE"

Also for your info, Citigroup yesterday announced that two of its hedge funds are not paying out to their customers that now want their money back and the Globe now wants us to invest down south.Derek; you go ahead and invest down south. You belong down there with the sub-prime mess, etc. You'd fit right in.

concur with Doug except for his statement about "falsehoods and misrepresentations". It should read "OUTRIGHT LIES" This comes from a government that has lost all sense of reality. There is no openness, honesty, integrity, accountability or even a sense of fairness. Lets be blunt. This government smells of corruption that blows the doors off anything the Liberals may have ever done.BruceAnother former conservative.

EVENTS

Income Trust Halloween VigilThanks to all who participated in both the Ottawa and Calgary vigils to mark the anniversary of the announcement.

WE"D LIKE SOME ANSWERS

As you well know, the ‘income trust thing’ has grown beyond the
question of whether fair taxes are paid on income from trusts. It’s
become a giant dirty snowball, and as it rolls forward it accumulates
more and more bulk. There are so many unanswered questions. Let's list a few and invite our "Accountable" government and our free press to provide some much-needed answers.

It is said “Trusts are inefficient use of capital. Why?” Two
related questions are ‘Whose money is it, anyway?’, and ‘Do Canadian
investors have a free and efficient market?’

How can information that is already in the public domain at SEDAR
make for a state secret? How could such information be used to harm
the Canadian national interest? And who would cause the harm?

Why won’t the Canadian media investigate the falsehoods and
misrepresentations told by the Minister of Finance to a committee of
Parliament? Was the Minister in contempt of Parliament?

Why won’t the Canadian media report (a) government tax revenues
gained from BCE in 2006 when BCE was a corporation to (b) government
tax revenues that would be gained in 2007 from BCE, if BCE had been
allowed to proceed to a trust, and (c) government tax revenues that
will be gained in 2007 from BCE, when BCE ownership has been carved
up as 45% foreign ownership and 55% large Canadian pension fund
ownership?